They either belong to us or to them, never to the booth of us : Nurses experiences of collaboration of care around the most frailelderly when reduced general condition at home- A qualitative study (English)

Abstract [en]

Background: Reduced general condition at home among the most frail elderly are common. Collaboration of care is necessary as many different health care providers often are involved. Since nurses often meet the most frail elderly in their home in these situations they dependent ona well-functioning collaboration between the health care providers. Aim of this study was to elucidate nurses experiences of collaboration of care around the mostfrail elderly when reduced general condition at home. Method: Qualitative focusgroupinterviews with fifteen nurses from community based care,primary care, ambulance care and emergency care with experience of caring for the most frailelderly and collaboration of care in the elderly’s home. According to the qualitative contentanalysis described by Bernard (1996) the focusgroupinterviews were analysed. Result: The result consists of the two main categories Alone in the team and The pursuit forinformation and the six subcategories To represent the most frail elderly, Absence of medicalassessment, Interaction between colleges, The importance of information, Absence of shared ITsystem and The want of sharing information. Conclusion: Nurses consider collaboration of care as necessary amongst the most frail elderlywhen reduced general condition at home. The result indicate that collaboration of care is difficultto achieve. To meet the needs of the most frail elderly in these situations nurses desires a changein structure to provide for team collaboration, approvement in communication and in sharinginformation. According to nurses, this would benefit collaboration of care and the personcentered care.